Singapore - Hainanese Chicken Rice and Steamed Fish Head at Chinatown Food Centre

Having already had Kaya Toast for breakfast, and a big lunch at Tiong Bahru Market, we ended up going out a bit late for dinner at Chinatown Complex Food Centre. Because of the time, a lot of the stalls had already closed up and the pickings were a bit slim.



We ended up grabbing a very serviceable Hainanese chicken rice dish from Yi Ding Hao.



It was also quite reasonably priced and came with a generous side of vegetables.



Right next to Yi Ding Hao was as stall called Heng Kee Cantonese Cooked Food and we couldn't resist ordering their steamed fish head in bean sauce:



The fish was succulent and delicious. The sauce was good, but a bit on the sweet side for me.



We only had one fish eyeball between the two of us, so I chivalrously let Sherry have it.

Singapore - Tiong Bahru Market: Fish Ball Noodle, Fried Kway Teow and Chwee Kueh

After our breakfast of Kaya Toast, we headed out to Tiong Bahru Market for lunch. The first floor of the building is a wet market, which was already winding down as we arrived. The food court is upstairs on the second floor.

We started with our first (but definitely far from our last) bowl of fish ball noodles at a stall called Hui Ji.



They had all sorts of stuff available in their display. I'm guessing that those more in the know could completely customize their bowl - I just ordered the larger of their two standard options.



There was a lot going on here:



and it was all delicious. Multiple kinds of fish balls, some dumplings, some pieces of pork and noodles.



 It was served with a bit of soup and an intense sauce, with extra soup provided.



Next up was fried kway teow:



They painstakingly put together each portion of kway teow - I guess to get exactly the right amount of each ingredient - before frying it up. I identified sliced fish cake, noodles, sausage and bean sprouts.



Unfortunately, it was pretty heavy, greasy and just not that flavorful. We had no problem eating it, but either this isn't a dish for me or this wasn't a great version. I suspect a combination of the two.



We rounded out our lunch with chwee kueh - spelled "shui" here at the Jian Bo stall.



Chwee kueh are steamed rice cakes topped with a preserved radish and chili. These were interesting and we really enjoyed them - the radish topping had an almost meaty taste to it. This batch was plenty for the two of us, though.



As with all of the hawker centres we visited in Singapore, we barely scratched the surface here at Tiong Bahru Market. So much interesting food in this city.

Singapore - Breakfast at Ya Kun Kaya Toast

It seemed appropriate for our first breakfast in Singapore to be a local favorite - Kaya Toast. And it was easy to do as one of the more famous local chains, Ya Kun Kaya Toast, had a store a block down the street from our hotel.



"Kaya" is coconut jam, made from coconut milk, eggs and sugar. "Kaya Toast" is, unsurprisingly, toast coated in kaya.



The toast is made with simple, slightly brown bread. It then gets a slather of kaya and generous slabs of butter. It isn't something we'd want to eat on a regular basis, but it was fun to try.

Kaya toast is most commonly served with soft-cooked eggs. When they came out on our tray, I was a bit taken aback. I can handle a bit of runny white, but I'm not a fan and these looked a bit scary:



It turned out not to be a problem, though. While they looked under-cooked, the white was actually quite nicely set up.

Black pepper and a seasoned soy sauce are provided on the table to use for adorning your eggs, so we took full advantage:



They were decadent and delicious. I could happily eat eggs this way on a regular basis.

The third element of the kaya toast trifecta is "kopi" (Malay for coffee):



Unless you request otherwise, it comes pre-prepared with sugar and condensed milk. I quite enjoyed it.

Singapore - Biryani, Dosa and Idli at Little India Tekka Hawker Centre

When we arrived at our hotel in Singapore and began to get our bearings, we were delighted to find out that the Little India neighborhood was within walking distance.

Setting out into the balmy night, the border of Little India was unmistakable:



Our primary destination was the Tekka Centre, one of Singapore's many hawker food courts. While other types of food are also represented, Indian food is the primary draw here.



We started out with an order of chicken biryani:



We couldn't have asked for a better first dish to eat in Singapore. This version came with a piece of chicken and an egg atop the richly flavored rice. Super satisfying to eat,

Because it was evening, many of the stalls were closed up, but there was still a lot of activity.



We ordered some dosa and idli from a vegetarian food stall and were not disappointed.



Idli and dosa are made from the same batter - a mixture of rice and lentils. The dosa is cooked somewhat like a crepe, while idlis are steamed. We make dosa at home, but this was our first idli experience and it was heavenly.



The sauce that came with our rice and lentil treats was delicious, as were the additional sauces that were provided on the table.



It is hard to describe just how much we enjoyed this - both the food and the atmosphere, which felt very culturally Indian.



We noticed signs on the table which said that alcohol was not allowed on Sundays after 6:00pm. Fortunately, it wasn't Sunday, so we had a beer. The vendor that served us told us the restriction was due to rowdy crowds of drinkers on Sundays getting violent.



After our meal, we wandered the the busy evening streets of little India - lots of people were still out doing their shopping. Given the heat of Singapore days, it seemed like a perfect time for it.



Overall, a great first evening in Singapore.

Hanoi - Bún Bò Nam Bộ and Bún Riêu

Bún Bò Nam Bộ (both the restaurant and the dish it is named after) was a favorite of ours - we ate there twice during our week in Hanoi. The name means "southern-style beef with rice vermicelli".

The prep area greets you as you walk in the door, with a stir-fry station cooking up the beef and an assembly line for putting together the bowls.



The dish starts with a bowl of greens topped with rice noodles.



Then the beef is added hot out of the wok and the dish is topped with bean sprouts, fried shallots, peanuts and what I think were chunks of green papaya.

Once you stir everything up, it becomes an intense but surprisingly refreshing bowl of goodness.



We will definitely be taking a shot at making this dish at home. I could see it becoming a regular part of our food rotation.

In contrast, one of our less successful meals in Hanoi was getting a bowl of Bún Riêu. We stopped in at a little stall in an alley one day to give it a try.



The bowl looked beautiful:



There was almost too much going on - a seafood-tomato broth, a big chewy snail, pork and tofu. Despite all of the ingredients, the flavors were quite flat. Not bad by any means, but no where near the standard of the other food we'd been eating in Vietnam.

Hanoi - Egg Coffee and Fried Snacks

There is something special about coffee in Vietnam. Our hotel served breakfast, and starting each day with the coffee they made was a pleasure.

Egg coffee takes the already great Vietnamese coffee up a notch. I'm not sure if it is an actual Hanoi thing or just a Hanoi tourist thing, but egg coffee is undeniably a delicious thing.

A shot of strong coffee, topped with a whipped custardy topping. We had ours at Giảng Cafe - packed with tourists and, I think, a decent scattering of locals as well.



Mix the coffee on the bottom with the eggy topping and you have something like a warm, liquid coffee ice cream. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I liked it a lot.



The same day we ticked egg coffee off of our list of things to try, we found ourselves passing a busy storefront that was all about fried snack food.



They had a happy clientele tucking into their fried offerings, so we couldn't resist sitting down and having some.



We tried an assortment of fried goodies:



The highlight was the shrimp fritters (bánh tôm) - crispy, crunchy and quite pretty.

Hanoi - Phở Bò and Phở Gà

It took us a while to get around to having phở in Hanoi. We have it semi-regularly at home and there was a lot of other food that was new to us. Rest assured, though, we weren't going to leave without having a bowl or two.



On a rainy night, we found phở bò calling our name. This place (Quán phở Gia Truyền) did only beef soup, and just in three variations - tái nam (rare steak and flank),  tái (just rare steak) and chín (brisket). We opted for the tái nam (picture at the top of this post) and the chín (below).



Both bowls were very good. In Hanoi, they serve phở quite simply - you aren't given a bunch of greens like you are with many other dishes.



On another night we found ourselves craving phở gà. We settled on a place called Tư Lùn and were not disappointed.



Like the beef phở, this was also served simply but was extremely satisfying. Hot, flavorful broth, tender slices of chicken, rice noodles and a garnish of green onion. Works for me.